"Australia is going to need to move into a leadership role in these international negotiations if in two years' time we can put our hands on our hearts and say we've done our best to stop dangerous climate change."

The US reached a compromise with the European Union (EU) to avoid specifying target figures for slashing greenhouse gas emissions.

The agreement makes only an indirect reference to scientists' warnings that the world must sharply cut carbon emissions to prevent a rise in temperatures that would put millions of people at risk.

The Climate Institute's chief executive John Connor said, as a result, the roadmap was "pretty wobbly".

"As a roadmap it's a pretty rough and risky one, and it's going to run on the edge of some pretty disastrous potential for the planet and for Australia in particular," Mr Connor told Sky News outside the meeting venue in Bali.

He said today's agreement was only a first step towards the goal of securing adequate cuts in emissions.

"We shouldn't forget, of course, that ... that roadmap had actually dropped one of the key things which has been part of the drama all week - would they have a recognition of this scientific range of a 25 to 40 per cent reduction by 2020 and a 50 per cent cut by 2050?

"Unfortunately, overnight that had dropped from the text, and we saw merely a reference to some of the science, a range of scenarios some of which would even include a six-degree warming for the planet - that's planetary meltdown stuff."

Mr Connor said at the very least a process had been put in place with countries committing to develop action plans through to 2009.

"But she's a pretty wobbly roadmap and some are calling it a goat track in there, so it's actually going to require a lot of hard work to make sure that's science-backed.

"We know the Australian government's saying it's serious about that but we don't know how serious other countries are going to be."